


Roar

by prairiecrow



Series: Lethe's Curse [3]
Category: ReBoot (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Combat, Friendship, Injury, M/M, Memory Alteration, Possessive Behavior, Pre-Slash, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-15
Updated: 2012-05-15
Packaged: 2017-11-05 09:46:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/405028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prairiecrow/pseuds/prairiecrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bob gets a glimpse of just how many teeth Megabyte has -- and how lethal they are, especially against his enemies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Roar

**Author's Note:**

> 1) Takes place on the world of Lethe, where Bob and Megabyte awoke stripped of their memories, formed an alliance of convenience — and found themselves, one day, profoundly physically changed.  
> 2) Takes place after Megabyte and his army have crossed into Omalan, but before they arrive at Cestiala.  
> 3) A picture of Megabyte and Bob at this point in the chronology: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v189/crowdog66/lethebobmegabyte-1.jpg  
> 4) The piece of art that this story is based on: http://prairiecrow.deviantart.com/#/d4zsrx8

Bob stared down at his right bicep, scarcely able to believe what he was seeing in the darkness of this winter night: an arrow shaft protruding from the side of the muscle, still faintly vibrating with energy from its suddenly interrupted flight.  _If I hadn't turned to give an order to Red —_

If he hadn't turned at that very second, the arrow would have ended up in his chest rather than in his arm. The sensation of being punched was followed by a sick wave of awareness of how close he'd come to being dropped right here and bleeding out amid the snowy bushes, his hopes of liberating Lord Edrill's slave labourers extinguished in the futility of his final wasted breath.

A coughing growl to his right brought his gaze around — to a sight that made the short hairs prickle erect on the back of his neck. Megabyte was looking — no, _glaring_  — at the cluster of archers on the wall who had fired the warning shot, his green eyes and solid red pupils blazing in the shadows with a light more ferocious than any Bob had yet seen. And as Bob watched, the purplish "skin" that had always concealed his back teeth sheared up and down to fully reveal those silver serrations, his draconic jaws gaping wide to showcase rows of front teeth that had seemingly unsheathed themselves to a length, on the longest fangs, of almost two inches. Or at least Bob didn't recall them being that long, that sharp, and that deadly before...

If the spectacle of all those pointed teeth was chilling, the roar that burst from Megabyte's throat was positively terrifying: a manticore couldn't have produced a more enraged and murderous sound, or a louder one. Bob stared at him with naked astonishment, frozen in place as the virus lunged forward and pounded across the narrow snow-covered field with hands outstretched at his sides, claws already extended in curves of steel that caught the torchlight from the fort with lethal elegance. 

A score more arrows rebounded and broke against his armoured hide, and as he scaled the twenty-five foot wall in two feline bounds Bob wondered if he even knew which archer had fired the shot that had hit his… well, perhaps "friend" came closest to describing the convoluted and enigmatic relationship they shared. But as Megabyte tore into the ranks of Edrill's men, using talons and teeth and speed and strength to bloody and devastating effect while some guards fled and some drew blades that would prove as useless as their arrows, Bob realized that to the virus it probably didn't matter: the ruthless execution of as many of them as possible would serve as an example to those who lived by running away, an object lesson that any who dared to attack the man he'd marked as _his_  would pay the ultimate price.

In the meantime, he was providing an essential distraction. "Come on!" Bob yelled, flexing his right arm enough to determine that it still more or less worked, and he led the charge toward the gate with Megabyte's men behind him, levelling his keytool and shouting a command: "Glitch, open!"

A blast of golden energy blew the doors off their hinges, while overhead the slaughter continued unabated, punctuated by screams and growls and the crunch of metallic claws and teeth crushing armour, flesh, and the bones beneath with equal ease. Bob couldn't help but glance upward as he passed beneath, to catch a final glimpse of the savagery that was both horrific and perfectly beautiful, a storm with an eye of indigo and crimson fury — and a truth deeper, perhaps, than any Megabyte had ever shared with him before, or ever would again. 

THE END


End file.
